Philips and VU University Medical Center Amsterdam sign agreement for PET/MR scanner to advance new approaches to cancer and neurology care

22 December 2011

VU University Medical Center Amsterdam will be the first hospital in the Netherlands to have a highly innovatice PET/MR scanner system

Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam (the Netherlands) today announced that they have signed an agreement to install one of Philips’ highly innovative Ingenuity TF PET/MR (Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance) scanners at the center. This advanced imaging modality will help researchers at the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam to investigate new methods of diagnosing and treating cancer and neurological disorders.

The VU University Medical Center Amsterdam will be the first hospital in the Netherlands to have a PET/MR system. The decision to install the scanner was driven by the need for diagnostic solutions that allow clinicians to bring personalized medicine to their patients. The VU University Medical Center Amsterdam is a globally recognized center of excellence in the fields of oncology, neurology and cardiology. It has specific expertise in imaging technologies, such as PET, that use targeted radioactive tracers to produce three-dimensional images of organs such as the brain or internal lesions such as tumors.

”The VU University Medical Center Amsterdam is particularly strong in the development and clinical application of PET technology in the fields of oncology, neurology and cardiology,” said Wim Stalman, Dean and Vice Chairman of the Board of the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam. “It is therefore particularly exciting to work with Philips, a true innovator in the field. I am convinced that together we will bring hybrid PET technologies such as PET/MR to the next level.”

“Constant innovation in medical imaging technologies has significantly expanded the frontiers of modern healthcare,” said Richard Fabian, General Manager Nuclear Medicine, Philips Healthcare. “Cancer care is an innovation focus area for Philips, in which new imaging modalities such as Philips’ PET/MR system are expected to play an ever-increasing role in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of the disease. We look forward to our continuing collaboration with the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam to fully exploit the potential benefits of PET/MR imaging in patient care.”

Philips‘ Ingenuity TF PET/MR system is one of the new imaging solutions that the company has recently released under the banner Imaging 2.0, an initiative designed to address the stated needs of radiologists and to raise the bar on clinical excellence through greater collaboration and integration, coupled with increased patient focus and enhanced economic value.

The Ingenuity TF PET/MR scanner combines the molecular imaging capabilities of PET with the superb soft tissue imaging capabilities of MR imaging. PET and MR have been used as separate and distinct imaging modalities for several years, with each modality requiring its own suite of rooms to house the necessary equipment. Philips was the first company in the world to successfully overcome the technical challenges involved in bringing these two modalities into close physical proximity in a whole-body scanner, so that sequential PET and MR images can be acquired in the same session. This allows very accurate overlaying of the PET and MR images so that clinicians can combine the functional and anatomical information provided by PET and MR respectively into a single fused image.

Philips has a long-standing relationship with the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam in leading-edge medical research – for example, via research organizations such as the Netherlands’ Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM).